Random Mike summarized the weather yesterday: "Fwoom! Hssss...."

When we left the house yesterday, it was in the 50s, and raining in gentle sprinkles. We put Penny in a light jacket with a hood.

By the time I got to work, it was raining in buckets.

By mid-morning, it was snowing, but not sticking because everything was wet.

By late morning, I'd heard thunder, and we had almost an inch of accumulation on the grass.

By lunch, it had stopped.

By mid-afternoon, the sun had come out, and 90% of the snow had already melted.

Fwoom! Hssss....

I had a plan, yesterday. The plan was something like this: I was going to go home and relax for half an hour, and then make dinner for Matt and I so that it would be ready when he and Penny got home. We'd eat dinner, and then around 6 I'd head over to the hospital to visit the Brandts. I'd see the baby and chat with Braz and Kris, and then come back home around 7:30 to help put Penny to bed.

Can you already hear the universe sniggering up its sleeve at me?

The first dent in the plan was that I arrived home to find seven - seven - large boxes on the front porch: The Pampered Chef stuff had arrived!

Well, so much for relaxing. But I thought I could get it all sorted out into the individual orders before Matt and Penny got home, and then Matt and I could eat leftovers for dinner, and the rest of the evening would go according to plan.

I almost finished before they got home. I only had two orders left to sort out when they came in. By that time, I had empty boxes all over the living room, two boxes still full of stuff, Pampered Chef bags piled by the door, and every sitting surface covered with stuff. And I'd already taken a bunch of the orders out to my car!

Matt took Penny upstairs so she wouldn't accidently break anything while I finished up the last two orders. I sorted them out, and realized that I was missing two of the freebies. I'll have to call my consultant about those tonight.

Then I lugged all the empty boxes out to the garage, and took all the bags either to my car (to deliver to people at work today) or put them in the garage (to keep them out of Penny's reach). I called up the stairs to Matt that it was safe for him and Penny to come back down. Matt responded that they were playing and having a good time, but thanks anyway.

So I started opening all of my stuff and reading the care and recipe cards and such.

Eventually, I noticed the time and went upstairs to get Matt and Penny. I made dinner for Penny and discovered that she's flipflopped on peas and hates them again. I fed her while Matt poked through the boxes and looked at Pampered Chef stuff.

Penny finished eating around 6, so I skipped dinner to head to the hospital.

I got there in time to interrupt Sarah's dinner. Jeremy and Elizabeth were there, too, so we all sat around talking while Kris tried to convince Sarah that if she was hungry, the food was right there for her.

Sarah was having none of it. She cried and sobbed and screamed. Kris handed her off to Braz, who eventually managed to calm her down... for all of about a minute and a half. Then she started crying again.

About the tenth time Kris wondered if she might be overstimulated, the rest of us finally took the hint and decided to head out. So I had only a very short visit, and didn't get to hold the baby at all. Maybe if we go back tonight. But I did learn that Emma is enraptured, and that Sarah is very hungry. And that Braz and Kris had forgotten about having to put a fresh diaper under the baby's butt immediately, if not sooner.

But I did get one picture, while Braz was checking to see if maybe Sarah's fuss was diaper-related:

So I got home in plenty of time to play with Penny and eat dinner before she had to go to bed.

So much for the Plan. But y'know what? I don't mind so much.

--Liz